Cruise passengers beware: Royal Caribbean will cancel your cruise if you have any unpaid balance after your contract’s due date. That’s true even if the balance you owe is small. One unaware couple learned this costly lesson at the pier when the cruise line blocked their attempt to board Navigator of the Seas.
Not only did the stunned couple miss their much-anticipated cruise to Mexico, but Royal Caribbean kept their $842 deposit, too.
These cruise-less passengers are asking Consumer Rescue for help.
They insist Royal Caribbean never alerted them to the $293 outstanding balance before canceling their cruise. The couple says they would have paid the bill right away had they known about it. They’re hoping our team can convince the cruise line to offer them a do-over.
But hold a minute. Did Royal Caribbean really cancel the couple’s cruise for nonpayment without any warning?
Let’s see what the paper trail shows.
Planning a Royal Caribbean cruise during a visit to the U.S.
Gal Meringer and his girlfriend Sahar are from Tel Aviv, Israel. Earlier this year, the two wanted to take a little break from the constant stress of living in a country engaged in war. So they chose to come to the United States to spend some time with extended family and to explore.
While planning their visit, the couple decided to take a short Royal Caribbean cruise. Originally, they booked a voyage embarking from Florida. But after arriving in the United States they realized that wasn’t practical since they’d be on the West Coast.
I called Royal Caribbean and asked if we could cancel the cruise and receive a refund of our $842 deposit. The RCCL agent told me that wasn’t possible since we were already in the 100 percent penalty phase. So I asked if we could switch to a different sailing from Los Angeles. After an hour of persuasion, the agent finally agreed to let us switch to a cruise out of Long Beach [south of Los Angeles]. He [the Royal Caribbean employee] did not tell me there would be any fare increase. I assumed it was an even switch.
After a little more discussion, Meringer says the RCCL agent confirmed the couple’s new voyage. The closed-loop cruise would take the couple to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico, aboard the Navigator of the Seas.
Royal Caribbean: “Here’s your new cruise itinerary.”
The cruise was scheduled to begin in just two weeks. But Meringer and his girlfriend had big plans for those next 14 days. They wanted to see as much as possible of the United States before returning home. The couple intended to go road tripping through some of the western national parks before their cruise to Mexico.
Meringer says the hour-long conversation with the Royal Caribbean employee was exhausting. But he was relieved to have successfully adjusted their cruise plans. Now they could turn their attention to mapping out their road trip.
A few minutes after that phone call, Meringer received a confirmation from Royal Caribbean for the new cruise itinerary. He admits he didn’t look very closely at it, except to ensure it had the correct voyage.
That was a giant mistake.
Did a glitch prevent these RCCL passengers from checking in?
The couple rented a car in Las Vegas and began their tour of the wild west of the United States. They wisely completed their adventure one day before their cruise to Mexico was set to begin.
“We knew to schedule our arrival to the cruise port area at least one day ahead of schedule,” Meringer told me. “We’ve read terrible stories of cruise ship passengers missing their trips because they arrived too late to the pier.”
Indeed. If you’re a regular visitor to this site then you also have read about that type of cruise fiasco. Cruise passengers should always build at least a one-day buffer between arriving at their embarkation city and the sail date.
The day before their scheduled cruise, the couple arrived in Long Beach and checked into a hotel near the pier. After dinner, Meringer says he attempted but was unsuccessful in printing out their boarding passes. He thought that was a bit odd but assumed it was just a glitch with the Royal Caribbean website.
It wasn’t a glitch.
There was a much more ominous reason that Meringer was unable to print their boarding passes. That fact would become crystal clear the next day at the pier where they also would not be able to check in.
Denied boarding: The cruise line canceled the reservation
The next day the couple took a free shuttle to the pier with plenty of time to spare. They wanted to iron out whatever problem prevented them from printing their boarding passes the night before.
At the Royal Caribbean terminal, Meringer says there was a festive feeling in the air. As the Navigator of the Seas towered in front of them, two porters asked the couple for their cabin information.
“I gave the ladies our cabin number and a tip,” Meringer told me. “They tied a pink string around our luggage and said they would take it to our room on the ship.”
After that, the couple made their way to the check in desk. That’s where the “festive” mood and all their cruise plans abruptly ended.
Meringer and his girlfriend were about to be denied boarding the cruise, but not in the traditional sense. (See: No, you can’t use a print-out from Ancestry.com to board your Royal Caribbean cruise)
First, a Royal Caribbean agent told the couple he could find no reservation for them in the system.
When Meringer gave the employee their cabin number to help locate the reservation, things only got worse. The RCCL crew member informed the couple that other passengers were assigned to that cabin – the one where they’d just sent their luggage.
A moment later a supervisor appeared and confirmed to the stunned couple that they would not be sailing on Navigator of the Seas. He explained that Royal Caribbean had canceled their cruise for non-payment and that’s why their reservation was nowhere to be found.
This cruise cancellation must be a mistake
As all the other passengers around them excitedly boarded the ship, Meringer pleaded that Royal Caribbean had made a mistake canceling the cruise. He was sure he’d paid for the trip in full and if not, he’d happily pay the balance on the spot.
But there was no mistake. The RCCL supervisor told Meringer that he had failed to pay the $293 balance on the cruise two weeks previously. It was too late to negotiate. Royal Caribbean had canceled the couple’s reservation and reassigned their cabin to other passengers.
Adding insult to injury, the employee ordered the cruise-less couple to vacate the passenger terminal immediately since they weren’t passengers.
They just wanted us to leave. I asked if we could pay the $293 and take a different cabin. But the [Royal Caribbean] supervisor told us we had forfeited the original deposit of $842. He said there was nothing more to discuss.
Just before the ship weighed anchor, a Royal Caribbean crew member appeared with their luggage. Then, the cruise line reminded the couple they weren’t passengers and should leave.
“It was very humiliating,” Meringer recalled. “There was cheerful music and everyone was smiling and laughing…and we’re being kicked out onto the street.”
Faced with no other choice, the couple gathered their belongings and were soon on the outside of the cruise terminal looking in. The day had turned into every cruise passenger’s nightmare – getting left behind at the pier as the ship sails away.
As the giant cruise ship disappeared over the horizon with all its happy travelers, a decidedly unhappy Meringer and his distraught girlfriend were faced with finding a place to stay for the night. In an unfamiliar city. In an unfamiliar country.
It was truly a disturbing turn of events.
Asking Consumer Rescue for help with this cruise fiasco
Weeks later, Meringer was still reeling from the shock of being denied boarding the cruise. As far as Royal Caribbean was concerned, the couple’s situation had been handled correctly and the cruise line considered the case closed.
But Meringer was still hoping to get his original deposit back from the cruise line.
Scrolling through the internet looking for answers, he came across an article I had written last year about another passenger’s somewhat similar cruise fiasco.
In that shocking case, an NCL customer accidentally put a third-party $112 ground transfer into her online shopping cart. The passenger wasn’t even aware that she’d done it and certainly had no idea of the devastating consequences coming her way. When she didn’t pay for it or remove it from her cart by the end of the day, NCL considered her account to be in arrears. The cruise line then canceled her family’s $4,567 cruise over the unpaid $112 ground transfer – also with no refund included.
After she contacted Consumer Rescue and asked for help and some influential cruise Vloggers reported on her plight as well, NCL finally relented. The cruise line issued future credits, and the family was able to take their cruise at another time.
Meringer hoped our consumer advocacy team might be able to rescue him too.
Unfortunately, as I started looking through Meringer’s paper trail, I quickly realized someone did make a mistake… but it wasn’t anyone at Royal Caribbean.
A flood of emails from Royal Caribbean about this cruise
The foundation of Meringer’s complaint was that Royal Caribbean had not alerted him to any balance owed on the cruise. If the cruise line had done so, he told me, he would have paid it. He reiterated to me that the phone agent who switched their itinerary didn’t inform him of a change in the cruise fare either. He had no way of knowing there was a balance due in the system.
But when I asked him for a copy of that cruise contract, Meringer’s case fell apart.
I suspect that there may have been a bit of a language barrier during the phone call with the Royal Caribbean agent. It’s possible that Meringer didn’t understand the change fees involved with the cruise. However, the contract that the employee sent shortly after that call reflected a $293 balance.
Because he didn’t pay that balance and the cruise was just 14 days away, Royal Caribbean would not have confirmed the couple’s cabin. I asked Meringer to go through his emails and have a look at anything that came from the cruise line during those two weeks.
It turns out that Royal Caribbean sent a lot of emails after the couple switched the itinerary. The cruise line repeatedly warned Meringer that he had a balance owed on the upcoming voyage. But as the couple was traveling, he was paying little attention to his inbox. The emails kept coming until about three days before the sailing of Navigator of the Seas.
“I see we made a mistake, but I thought the emails were all advertisements,” Meringer admitted. “I saw a few that asked me to bid on a RoyalUp cabin upgrade. So I figured that’s what they were all about.”
Unfortunately, not all of the emails were about bidding on a RoyalUp upgraded cabin on Navigator of the Seas. Many of those messages were Royal Caribbean’s warning of the impending cancellation of their cruise for a balance owed.
Fact: Every cruise line will cancel your cruise over an unpaid balance
I explained to Meringer that there was no mistake on the part of Royal Caribbean and that every cruise line would handle this situation in the same way. He seemed surprised, but humbled.
“If you say that’s true, I accept it since my grandmother recommended you to me for the good work you do,” he told me. “But it seems unfair that we paid $842 and received nothing in return. Shouldn’t Royal Caribbean have allowed us to pay the balance at the cruise pier?”
The straightforward answer to Meringer’s question is “No.”
The Royal Caribbean cruise contract outlines the payment schedule and what happens if a passenger deviates from it.
All balances must be paid within 45 days of most cruise embarkation dates (some longer cruises require payment 120 days before the sail date). When this couple switched their itinerary, they were just 14 days away from their planned voyage. They needed to pay that balance immediately on the day of that long phone call with the RCCL agent.
Since they didn’t pay the balance, the contract of carriage says they forfeited 100 percent of what they had paid to the cruise line.
Of course, I felt awful for the couple. They were really just trying to have a relaxing few weeks away from their war-torn country. And I did think that a language barrier may have been part of the problem. SO…
Asking Royal Caribbean for a goodwill gesture consideration
If you’ve followed my column for some time, then you know that I rarely ask companies to extend goodwill gestures. Our team’s goal is to make consumers whole. We never attempt to strong-arm businesses into giving customers things they aren’t owed.
When I decide to present a case for consideration of a goodwill gesture, I always make it crystal clear to the consumer why the company doesn’t owe them anything. And if the cruise line offers something, it is simply a gesture of kindness on the part of the business.
With that in mind, I sent Meringer’s case over to our executive contacts at Royal Caribbean.
Here’s a little excerpt:
…Obviously, this couple made a giant mistake, but in their defense they were doing a lot of obscure road tripping through the western national parks throughout August which contributed to their lack of awareness of the problem with their cruise having a small balance.
The only reason I’m bringing this to your team is that the couple is hoping to be able to sail with RCCL before they go back to Israel if at all possible. They paid $834 for the Ensenada cruise and they were hoping to be able to receive a cruise credit in that amount since it does seem that RCCL was able to resell their cabin on their canceled cruise. I have already informed them IF RCCL does extend this credit it is purely a goodwill gesture and nothing that is owed to them.
Thank you for having a look at this one! 😃🚢
Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer advocate
The good news: Royal Caribbean extends future cruise credits
The Royal Caribbean executive team reviewed Meringer’s situation and the good news came shortly.
Hi Michelle,
We would like to sincerely thank you for all your assistance.
Royal Caribbean has just responded to us, and they are providing 100% of the amount in vouchers for our next trip with them. We had nearly lost hope that anyone would listen to us, and we felt deeply frustrated and saddened by the situation.
We were referred to you by my grandmother, and we were greatly impressed by the Consumer Rescue website and your dedication to helping people affected by large corporations. Your work is truly commendable.
We deeply appreciate all the help you’ve given us—it’s something we don’t take for granted. You were the light at the end of the tunnel for us.
With our deepest gratitude,
Gal and Sahar
You’re very welcome. We’re happy your grammy knew about us and that we could help.
Happy sailing!
How to make sure the cruise line doesn’t cancel your cruise for nonpayment
Here are a few tips to keep in mind so you don’t end up with a cruise line canceling your trip over an outstanding balance.
- Read your cruise contract: It’s crucial that you read through your cruise contract as soon as you receive it. Not only should you check that the passenger information, cabin, itinerary, and pricing details are correct, but note the payment schedule. As we’ve seen today, if you miss a deadline, your cruise line will cancel your voyage. It isn’t up to Royal Caribbean (or any other cruise line) to alert you of the details in your contract. Set up your own alert on your phone or email to remind yourself of payment dates.
- Don’t ignore emails sent from your cruise line: If you have an active reservation, you should never ignore any emails coming from your cruise line. Don’t assume the messages are advertisements. The correspondence could be alerting you to an unpaid balance, a change in itinerary, information about your destinations, or any number of other important details. Always review every email coming from your cruise line.
- Contact the cruise line if you can’t see your reservation online: It’s important to recognize red flags that there may be a problem with your reservation. If your cruise suddenly disappears from your account or you can’t check in during the normal time frame, don’t assume it’s a glitch in the system. Contact your cruise line and find out what’s wrong. If you need the name and contact information of a real person at the cruise line who we know has a history of helping passengers, you can Just Ask Meera. She is Consumer Rescue’s research director, and she maintains our giant database of customer-facing contacts to help you reach the right person to fix your own problem.
The bottom line
The worst place to discover you have no cruise at all is at the pier after you’ve sent your luggage onto the ship to someone else’s cabin. Don’t let that happen to you. Stay aware, be proactive, and enjoy your cruise! (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer Rescue)
Well, RCI didn’t cancel their cruise at the pier, it had been canceled weeks before that, when they failed to complete payment.
What bothers me is the headline makes it appear that Royal Caribbean (RCI) just canceled their cruise for no good reason. Maybe it should have been “My own negligence almost lost me $842 on a Royal Caribbean Cruise!” Just saying, put the blame where it lies.
BUT… that being said, Super Michelle saves the day again, and I hope the couple got to take a wonderful cruise!
They haven’t taken the cruise yet since this was just fixed last week. But I know they will be going soon. 🙂
I am happy for them, but I don’t think a language barrier was a problem. His thank you letter looks great (he used contractions, so he knows about them).
I do agree that the problem basically came down to the emails not being read and, if we are to believe him, that the phone rep didn’t tell him they owe more money.
I would like to hope that cruise lines wouldn’t put ‘balance due’ email messages in a message that’s about other stuff. The subject line should be screaming (in all upper case) balance due now! Or to paraphrase a line from the classic comedy movie (The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming), “emergency, emergency important to get from street” would be changed to “emergency, emergency important to pay balance due” and again, in all uppercase (I don’t want to do that here, as I don’t want to be thought of as shouting). If you’ve never seen the movie, it’s a hoot.
Again, great work.
Thank you :). I did see many of the emails, and it was clear that a balance was due.
Hi Michelle; In the end I think you did the right thing, everyone won as RCCL resold their original cabin and now will sell them another cruise. Clearly, this couple was indeed entirely at their own fault, they are lucky to get the future cruise credits. It was correct that you made it clear that they couple was in error by ignoring emails about their upcoming trip and that the credits given were strictly a Goodwill gesture by RCCL. Nice ending.
Yes, they are lucky to get the future credits and they’ve learned a valuable lesson as well 🙂
Irresponsibility of this magnitude is breathtaking. On both sides. Completely change a cruise and not verify any of the facts is astonishing behaviour. It was lovely that you went to bat for them, Michelle, even tho they didn’t deserve it! This is a terrific win-win solution.
How was RCCL irresponsible? They sent them many e-mails to make the payment.